Stacy Mitchell is a senior researcher with the New Rules Project, a program of the nonprofit Institute for Local Self-Reliance. A frequent speaker at conferences and public forums, she has advised numerous communities on strategies and policies to limit chain store proliferation and strengthen locally owned businesses. Her latest book, Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses (Beacon Press, 2006), was described by author Bill McKibben as "the ultimate account of the single most important economic trend in our country." Mitchell regularly contributes articles and commentaries to magazines and newspapers, and produces an acclaimed monthly email newsletter, The Hometown Advantage Bulletin. She lives in Portland, Maine.
Eric Tang is Communication Coordinator for the CA Clean Money Campaign, a non-profit organization that was instrumental in advising the CA Nurses Association on the construction of what is now Proposition 89, which will be on the ballot here in CA this November. A graduate of UCLA, Eric first joined the Clean Money team as an intern in 2003. Before joining the full-time staff, he worked for the Democratic National Committee, the Sierra Club, and Congressman Adam Schiff. In the summer following his college graduation, Eric journeyed to Africa and led a project to establish a library for refugees in Zambia.
Dr. David A. Smith is a Professor of Sociology and Planning, Policy and Design and a Center for the Study of Democracy faculty associate at the University of California, Irvine; he is Acting Director for the UCI Labor Studies Group. His research interest include globalization, labor and inequality, world city networks and global commodity chains, outsourcing and development. He has published many articles and chapters in these areas; his recent co-edited books include Labor Versus Empire: Race, Gender and Migration and Nature, Raw Materials and Political Economy. He is the former Editor of Social Problems and current Co-Editor of Contemporary Sociology.
Mehul M. Thakker is the 2006 Green Party candidate for CA State Treasurer. A second generation South Asian American, Mehul was born and raised in Odessa, Texas and holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Dallas. When not running for political office, he is an Investment Advisor in Oakland, CA with a focus on Socially Responsible Investment and Community Development. Mehul is an active member of a wide variety of investment and environmental organizations and is passionate about securing economic justice for low income and minority groups in the U.S. He strives to educate on how to use the power of investment to create positive social change locally and globally.
Dr. Walden Bello is professor of sociology and public administration at the University of the Philippines and executive director of Focus on the Global South, a research and advocacy institute based at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Dr. Bello has been declared one of the "stars in our human cosmos" by the 2003 jury of the Right Livelihood Award, known as the Alternative Nobel Prize. He is one of the leading critics of the current model of economic globalization, combining the roles of intellectual and activist. He won the New California Media Award for Best International Reporting in 1998. The Belgian newspaper Le Soir recently called Bello "the most respected anti-globalisation thinker in Asia". He is the author or co-author of roughly 25 books on politics and economic issues in the Philippines and Asia, including his latest: Dilemmas of Domination: The Unmaking of the American Empire.
Jeff Cohen is a writer, lecturer, and media critic. In 1986, Jeff founded the media watch group FAIR, which is short for Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. He was an on-air commentator at MSNBC in 2002/2003, a weekly “News Watch” panelist on Fox News Channel from 1997 to 2002, and a co-host of the CNN program “Crossfire” in 1996. His columns have been published in dozens of dailies, including USA Today, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globe. In 2003, he was the communications director for the Kucinich for President campaign. His latest book, Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media, chronicles his time working for the major cable news networks.
Emily Rusch is Consumer and Budget Advocate for the California Public Interest Research Group, better known as CALPIRG. CALPIRG is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that stands up for the public when corporate wrongdoing threatens the health or safety of Californians. Based in its San Francisco office, Emily is working to lower the high costs of energy and to ensure California’s state budget is formed to meet the needs of citizen taxpayers, not wealthy corporate interests. Prior to joining CALPIRG’s staff, Emily worked for four years as an Energy Advocate in New Jersey, where she ran successful campaigns to require New Jersey’s power companies to increase clean, renewable energy like wind and solar power, and to pass legislation to set minimum energy efficiency standards for common products like air conditioners and traffic lights.
Dr. David C. Korten is an author, lecturer, and engaged citizen. One of the first to draw widespread attention to the destructive and oppressive nature of the global corporate economy, his work inspires people around the globe to think differently about the world in which we live. He is the author of many books, including his latest, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, and is associated with numerous organizations, including The People-Centered Development Forum, The Positive Futures Network, and the International Forum on Globalization. He has a PhD from Stanford University and has taught at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business.
Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap is Director of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County, an organization that designs and implements grassroots strategies that exercise democratic power over corporations and governments. Kaitlin served as a member of the national Leadership Team of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom's campaign to Challenge Corporate Power and Assert the People's Rights. She currently serves on the Board of the SmartMeme Project and is a co-founder and Secretary to the Board of the California Center for Community Democracy, DUHC's fiscal sponsor. She is also a Principal with Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy and a Fellow for Liberty Tree: Foundation for the Democratic Revolution. In November 2004, Kaitlin was elected to serve on the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District Board. She is the youngest member and the first woman to serve in this position. She also served on the Housing Advisory Board for the City of Eureka from 2004-2006.
Jennifer Rockne co-founded and directs the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), a national non-profit organization that works with communities to launch and perpetuate local Independent Business Alliances. AMIBA's mission is to reverse the trend of chains displacing locally-owned independent businesses while restoring authority over community future to the people who call it "home." Previous to AMIBA, Jennifer served as outreach director for the Boulder IBA, the nation's first IBA, which spawned AMIBA to focus on national interest. She is a former corporate trainer, an active volunteer since childhood, and hails from a family with a four-generations-old family business.
Jerry Mander is Co-Director and Founder of the International Forum on Globalization, an alliance of 60 leading activists, scholars, economists, researchers, and writers formed to stimulate new thinking, joint activity, and public education in response to economic globalization. He is also the program director for the Foundation for Deep Ecology, a land conservation organization, and a senior fellow at the Public Media Center, a marketing organization helping nonprofit groups. His books include Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television (1977), In the Absence of the Sacred (1991), The Case Against the Global Economy and For a Turn Toward the Local (co-edited with Edward Goldsmith, 1996), Alternatives to Economic Globalization: A Better World is Possible (2002) and, most recently, Paradigm Wars: Indigenous Peoples' Resistance to Economic Globalization (2006).
Nikki Daruwala is Director of the Socially Responsible Business Program at American Rights at Work, a Washington DC-based labor policy and advocacy organization. Prior to her current position, she was Manager for Advocacy and Social Policy at Calvert, a leading socially responsible mutual fund company. In addition to her role at American Rights at work, Ms. Daruwala is a founding member of the Child Labor Coalition, served as Chairperson of the Indigenous Rights Committee and the Diversity Committee at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and served on the Board of the Shareholders Advisory and Policy Committee of the Social Investment Forum.
Daphne Wysham is a Fellow and board member of the Institute for Policy Studies, founder and co-director of the Sustainable Energy & Economy Network (a.k.a. SEEN, a project of the IPS), and founder and co-host of Earthbeat Radio, which airs on WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington. Earthbeat Radio is being syndicated to other stations nationwide. She is also a Fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, an associate of the Center for Investigative Reporting, an energy writer for UPI, a board advisory to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a Senior Fellow with the Sierra Club, and a member of the Durban Group for Climate Justice. A former editor-in-chief of Greenpeace Magazine, Ms. Wysham's analysis and critiques have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and on BBC, NPR, and Marketplace, among others.
Jeff Milchen is Founder and Director of Reclaim Democracy.org, an organization seeking to revive democracy and restore citizen authority over corporations. Jeff is also Co-Founder and Outreach Director of the American Independent Business Alliance, a.k.a. AMIBA, which helps communities form coalitions to prevent chain stores from displacing local businesses. He was instrumental in establishing the Boulder Independent Business Alliance. Mr. Milchen has written for dozens of newspapers and magazines, including The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Korea Herald, The Ecologist, American Prospect and Inc. Magazine. He lives and works in Bozeman, MT.